Welcome! This guide will help you set up a system for organizing and sharing your church's photos with Church Media Squad. We've outlined two options depending on your budget. We recommend starting with Option 1 if possible, but Option 2 works great too and is completely free!

Which Option is Right for You?

🥇 Option 1 — SmugMug (Recommended)

SmugMug is a dedicated photo storage platform built specifically for photographers and organizations. It's the cleanest, most organized way to store and share your church photos with our team.

💰 How Much Does It Cost?

We recommend the Direct plan at $20/month billed annually.

Want to try getting it for free? SmugMug offers free accounts to qualifying non-profits. While religious organizations are technically listed as ineligible, it's still worth applying — it's free and only takes a few minutes.

👉 Apply here: nonprofits.smugmug.com/Requests/Request-an-account

If approved, you get SmugMug free. If not, the Direct plan is well worth the cost.

Step 1 — Create Your SmugMug Account

1. Go to www.smugmug.com and click the green "Try Free" button in the top right corner.
2. Click "Start My Trial" on the Direct plan. No credit card is required for the 14-day free trial.
3. Enter your church's email address (a shared address like [email protected] works great), create a password, and use your church's name as your display name.
4. Check your inbox for a verification email from SmugMug and click the link to confirm your account. (Check your spam folder if you don't see it.)
5. After your 14-day trial, select the Direct plan and pay annually to lock in the $20/month rate.

Step 2 — Organize Your Photos

SmugMug uses Folders and Galleries to keep things organized. Think of it like a filing cabinet — Folders are the drawers, and Galleries are the files inside.

Here's an example structure to follow:

<aside> 💡

📁 2026   📁 Sunday Mornings   🖼 2026-06-15 Sunday Morning   🖼 2026-06-22 Sunday Morning 📁 Wednesday Nights 📁 Preteens 📁 Students 📁 Baptisms 📁 Events 📁 Small Groups 📁 [Any other ministry your church has]

</aside>

How to set it up:

1. Log in to SmugMug. Click your name in the top right and select "Organizer" from the dropdown.
2. Click "+ Create" and select "Folder". Name it the current year (e.g. 2026). Click Save.
3. Inside that year folder, click "+ Create" → "Folder" and name it after a ministry (e.g. Sunday Mornings). Repeat for each ministry.
4. Inside a ministry folder, click "+ Create" → "Gallery". Name it by date and event — e.g. 2026-06-15 Sunday Morning. (Starting with the date keeps galleries in order automatically.)
5. Open the gallery, click the Upload button, and select your photos. Wait for the upload to complete before closing the tab.

Step 3 — Set Up Privacy & Sharing

1. In the Organizer, click on a gallery → click the Settings (gear) icon → set Privacy to "Unlisted".

   💡 Unlisted means it won't appear publicly online, but anyone with the link can view and download. Do not use "Private" (we can't see it) or "Public" (anyone on the internet can find it).

2. In the same Settings panel, scroll to Downloads and turn "Allow original photo downloads" ON.

3. Click the "Share" button at the top of the gallery and copy the link.

4. Send the link to your Church Media Squad contact with the event name, date, and photographer's name if known.

✅ SmugMug Tips

• 📷 Upload full resolution JPG or RAW files whenever possible.
• 🏷 Name galleries consistently: YYYY-MM-DD Event Name
• 🗑 Remove blurry, dark, or duplicate shots before uploading.
• 📁 One gallery per event, not one per photographer.
• 🔔 Send us the link within a week of the event.

🥈 Option 2 — Google Drive & Google Photos (Free)

If SmugMug isn't the right fit for your church, Google Drive and Google Photos together make a powerful free alternative. Most churches already have a Google account, so there's very little setup required.

Here's how they work together:

• 📱 Google Photos — Great for volunteers uploading photos from their phones on the go.
• 💻 Google Drive — Great for organized, high-resolution photo storage and sharing with our team.

Step 1 — Make Sure You Have a Google Account

1. If your church doesn't already have a Google account, go to accounts.google.com and click "Create account". Use a shared church email if possible (e.g. [email protected]).
2. If you already use Gmail, Google Docs, or YouTube for your church, you already have a Google account — just use that!

Step 2 — Organize Your Google Drive

1. Go to drive.google.com and sign in.
2. Click "+ New" → "Folder" and name it the current year (e.g. 2026).
3. Open that folder. Click "+ New" → "Folder" and name it after a ministry (e.g. Sunday Mornings). Repeat for each ministry.
4. Inside each ministry folder, create a folder for each event named by date — e.g. 2026-06-15 Sunday Morning.

Your folder structure should look like this:

<aside> 💡

📁 2026   📁 Sunday Mornings   📁 2026-06-15 Sunday Morning   📁 2026-06-22 Sunday Morning 📁 Wednesday Nights 📁 Preteens 📁 Students 📁 Baptisms 📁 Events 📁 Small Groups 📁 [Any other ministry your church has]

</aside>

1. To upload photos, open an event folder, click "+ New" → "File upload", and select your photos.

Step 3 — Using Google Photos for Mobile Uploads

If volunteers are taking photos on their phones, Google Photos makes it easy to back them up automatically.

1. Download the Google Photos app on your phone (available on iPhone and Android — it's free).

2. Sign in with your church's Google account.

3. Turn on "Backup" in the app settings. Photos taken on that phone will automatically upload to Google Photos.

4. After an event, go to photos.google.com, find the photos from that day, and move or copy them into the correct Google Drive folder.

   💡 You can also create a shared album in Google Photos for each event and send volunteers a link to contribute their photos to it.

Step 4 — Share With Church Media Squad

1. In Google Drive, right-click the event folder you want to share and click "Share".
2. Click "Change to anyone with the link" and make sure it is set to "Viewer".
3. Click "Copy link" and send it to your Church Media Squad contact.

✅ Google Drive & Photos Tips

• 📷 Upload original, full-resolution photos — don't let Google compress them. In Google Photos settings, choose "Original quality" instead of "Storage saver."
• 🏷 Name folders consistently: YYYY-MM-DD Event Name
• 🗑 Do a quick cull before uploading — remove blurry, dark, or duplicate shots.
• 📁 One folder per event, not one per photographer.
• 📱 If using Google Photos for mobile backups, designate one person per event to collect and organize the photos into Drive afterward.

🆘 Need Help?